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Immigrants’ rights clinic to discuss local immigration enforcement at event

October 19, 2015

Immigrants’ rights clinic to discuss local immigration enforcement at event

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, in collaboration with State College Mayor Elizabeth Goreham, will deliver a community presentation next month on “Local Police and Immigration Enforcement.” The event, which will also include a question and answer session with State College Chief of Police Thomas King, is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 in Room 304 of the State College Municipal Building.

The Nov. 16 event is just the latest product of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic’s collaboration with the State College mayor’s office. In the spring, clinic students discussed President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration with the State College Borough at a public meeting that included the mayor of State College, Borough Council members, and the public. The presentation was recorded for broadcast on the local government’s television station.

Also last semester, under the supervision of the clinic’s director, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, students provided legal analysis and support to Goreham on the president’s executive actions, laying the groundwork for the mayor’s endorsement of a national amicus brief signed by more than 70 mayors, cities, county executives, and counties from across the country in support of the executive actions on immigration. The brief was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on April 6 in support of the position of the U.S. Department of Justice in Texas v. U.S.

The center also provides legal support in individual cases of immigrants challenging deportation or seeking protection and has recently been conducting group rights presentations for immigration detainees.​​

Professor Wadhia’s teaching goal is for students to gain the skills required to be effective immigration advocates and attorneys. This requires a combined understanding and appreciation for immigration law, policy and politics, and the relationships between them. Students have primary responsibility in making case- and project-related decisions, reflecting deliberatively on their work, and collaborating with clients to achieve positive results.

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Penn State Law Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, the founder and director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, is an expert on immigration law and one of the nation’s leading scholars on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law.